"Will not you stop me?" answered Marcelino in English.
"Stop you? no; our orders are to send you away from here."
Marcelino looked at him attentively, he had seen him before somewhere, presently he remembered where that was. This was the young officer who, to his astonishment and that of his men, had jumped in among them over the aloe fence not an hour before; also the same officer whom he had seen standing under the glare of the wax-lights beside his sister in his mother's sala only two nights ago.
"You will not stop here, you will go back to the city?" he said.
"I believe so," replied the officer.
"Then will you do me a favour?"
"I shall have much pleasure."
"You visit at the house of Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon?"
"Yes, frequently," answered the young officer, his face lighting up with pleasure.
"I will write a line for Doña Constancia if you will carry it for me."